Karahien
General Info Karaxien is directly descended from Afrikaans, and is spoken many years in the future by a growing community outside of Karasburg, Namibia. While Afrikaans was spoken by about 11% of the population in 2015, the isolation of speakers led to rapid evolution of the language and the eventual designation as a separate language, rather than a dialect of Afrikaans. The language has kept evolving since, and eventually spread back to South Africa, where it settled once again in the Northern Cape. Classification and Dialects Phonology Sound Changes Sound Changes From Afrikaans *''P - Plosive '' *''F - Fricative '' *''V - Vovel '' *''C - Consonant'' *''L - Liquid'' *''N - Nasal'' *''M - Non-Plosive/Affricate Consonant'' *''A - Affricate'' *''X - Any Sound'' *''Q - Affricate, Plosive, Fricative, Nasal'' *''R - Rhotic'' First and foremost, distinctions between long and short sounds are eliminated. Some sounds were eliminated and replaced by others. Conflicts with these new sounds are quickly resolved *''m > n'' *''ʒ > ʝ'' *''ʃ > ɬ'' *''sχ > ɬ'' *''χ > ç'' *''h > t͡ʃ'' Next, vowels undergo significant changes. *''ie > i / _r'' *''ie > ai / (b, d)_ (also grants immunity from further sound changes)'' *''ie > iə (also grants immunity from further sound changes)'' *''i > ai / #_'' *''i > a / C_M'' *''ɵu > ɤ'' *''o > ɤ / _P'' *''o > ɔ'' *''u > ɤ ! _#'' *''u > ɔ'' Next, sound changes occur through different pronunciation of certain consonants and occasionally changing order of sounds *''s > Ø / #_P'' *''f > v / #_'' *''v > f / #_C'' *''g > ʝ / _(i,e)'' *''b > v / #_'' *''t > Ø / V_#'' *''t > d / _R'' *''t > d _#'' *''t > d / V_e'' *''t > t͡ʃ / #_(e,a)'' *''n > ŋ / #_'' *''s > ts / #_V'' *''k > ts / _#'' *''s > z / V_#'' *''QVL > QLV'' I-Umlaut I-Umlaut occurs when the sounds e''', '''o, au, and ai occur as the second to last vowel, and /i/ is the final vowel. The vowel is always written as its new sound is. Rules for this are as follows: *o » e *e » o *au » ai *ai » au E-Umlaut E-Umlaut occurs when the sounds a''', e',' i',' and o''' occur as the second to last vowel, and /e/ is the final vowel. The vowel is always written as its old sound, sometimes with an umlaut over it. When not affected by E-Umlaut, ei, ai, and ʌ are always written as <ä>, <ï>, and <ö>. /i/ can be written as <ë> or . Rules for this are as follows: *a » ei (ä) *e » i (ë) *i » ai (ï) *o » ʌ (ö) Consonants Vowels Writing System Notes: While non-final can technically be used to represent the sound /i/, the letter <ë> is much more commonly used, though it is left entirely up to the writer, with one exception: where the /i/ is generated by e-umlaut, it is always written as <ë>. Final is always sounded as /i/, and final /i/ is always written as . Grammar Nouns Nouns inflect to case and number, but there is no gramatical gender, and definitiveness is indicated through articles. In english the second two roles are covered by either the definite article 'the' or the demonstrative adjectives 'this' or 'that'. In Karaxien they are always done through articles, equivalent to either the demonstrative adjectives or the article. There are two classes of nouns, with Class I ending in vowels, and Class II ending in consonants. There are 4 degress of definitiveness, each usable on non-total nouns, defined as follows: Articles The articles used to indicate definitiveness are as follows: *Indefinite : An *Definite : Dï *Presentable : Ecï *Inter/impersonal: Ahï *Indefinite: Speaking of arbitrary instance(s) of what is being referred to **'Some rabbits' can only be killed with hand grenades *Definite: Speaking of specific instance(s) of what is being referred to **'The rabbit' is evil *Personal: Speaking of specific instance(s), bearing a personal significance to the 1st person **The/this rabbit is my friend *Interpersonal / Impersonal: Speaking of specific instance(s), bearing a personal significance to either the 2nd or the 3rd person **The/that rabbit is her friend Nouns are pluralized in two ways: noun forms that end in vowels are pluralized with an -s, while noun forms that end in consonants are slightly more complicated. An -i is added to the end, and this sometimes induces an umlaut on the previous vowel. The vowels are written as their new sounds These vowel changes are as follows in Karaxien: *o > e *e > o *ao > ai *ai > ao Class I - idjo: Idiot Class II - Orvaod: Jungle Verbs Verbs do not conjugate to person, however the number of the subject is relevant to conjugation. Most verbs conjugate fully and distinctly to number, tense, and mood. Though there is much debate over this in general, there is no doubt that the conditional is a tense in Karaxien. Verbs in the present tense are formed by using the infinitive form for the singular subjects, and the infinitive form with -es or -s attached Conjugation Verbs only conjugate to present and conditional Past tense The present perfect tense is formed by placing cze before the past participle, while the pluperfect is formed by placing czasao before the same. The past participle is identical to the preterite. The preterite tense is formed by placing ja-''' in front of the verb as a prefix. Other tenses The other tenses are discussed in great detail in the syntax section. Adjectives Adjectives inflect according to number, and whether or not they are predicative or attributive. The predicative singular adjectives serve as the base form, while the others add onto that. They are as follows: Pronouns Nominative, Accusative, and Dative personal pronouns follow Syntax Word Order The general word order is SOV, but this is often ignored in writing, where the reader can simply go back if s/he does not understand what was said and context is more 'rewindable' Future Tenses There are two future tenses, the simple future and the near future. The simple future, the equivalent of 'I will xyz', is formed by placing the present tense form of the verb "to be" before the infinitive verb, while the near future, the equivalent of 'I am going to xyz', is formed by placing the present tense form of the verb "to go" before the infinitive verb. When forming the conditional, the simple future is used as the base for a simple conditional, while the near future base is used as a progressive conditional. Conditional Tense The simple conditional, 'I would xyz' is formed like a past future, conjugating the verb 'to be' in the past tense, and placing it before the infinitive verb. The progressive conditional is formed much the same way, only with the verb 'to go' in the past tense. Introducing New Clauses There is no subjunctive conjugation, but subjunctive clauses and other dependent clauses are formed differently from one another. The subjunctives are formed paraphrastically by stating the main subject and the verb, followed by the subject of the new clause, followed by the word ''''da' (that), followed by the infinitive verb for the new clause. Other new clauses, such as 'if' statements, are formed by using the introductory word for the new clause, then a normal subject-verb combination. This is most often the same construction used in english. Comparatives and Superlatives Comparatives are formed by placing 'nier' before the adjective they are modifying, while superlatives are formed the same way, only with an article preceeding the 'nier'. Reflexives There is no specific reflexive pronoun in Karaxien, but instead, to indicate reflexiveness, transitive verbs are used without an object. Therefore, "They kill the dog" means exactly what it says, but "They kill" means "They kill themselves" Passive Voice The passive voice is formed by placing the verb "to be" in front of the past participle. This functions as the mirror opposite of the perfect tenses, however since not all of the perfect tenses are formed using cze (have), the conditional and future passives are formed differently than their perfects. Lexicon Example text Category:Languages Category:August Germlang Challenge